Help Mara walk again

Mara was born with an extremely rare genetic mutation. This mutation affects her muscle tone and also makes her legs very tight. Mara is using a wheelchair and a walker to get around. Due to this tightness in her legs, she was having to work so hard to stretch her muscles and she even got casting done multiple times to help stretch her legs. It helped some, but the tightness kept coming back. Her doctor talked to them about a surgery that could help reduce the tightness in her legs and maybe, one day, give her the possibility to be more self sufficient, a possibility to have a more comfortable life, even maybe walk one day! The surgery is a spinal surgery that cuts specific nerves in her back to help reduce the tightness in her legs. Mara had this surgery in May and is doing amazing. However, the hard part comes after the surgery.

In order to regain strength and learn to “walk again”, Mara has to do intensive therapy for 1 year, starting with 5x a week for the first 6 months and then slowly reducing the days. Therapy is likely to continue for years after! Insurance approved all her therapies prior to surgery and then denied them once they filed the codes for the therapy. They have been fighting with the insurance company and tried everything they could to have Mara’s therapies covered. But in the end, they've exhausted all options. It’s very expensive yet very necessary physical therapy. The surgery is basically null and void without it.  Mara is such a sweet, determined, strong, brave, beautiful little girl.  Tania and Andrew are busy parents of 4 young children, Mara, Aria, Mia and Luca. There are so many of you who love this sweet family. Their time of need is NOW. There are many pieces of equipment that also need to be changed soon since she is outgrowing them. She needs new braces. They are also hoping to get her a special bike that is 2k and new walker. They can use any gift of any amount.